Gartner predicts continued IT growth

Market analyst Gartner has predicted further growth this year in IT spending, with global sales expected to exceed $3.4 trillion.

Sales continue to be driven by a shift to mobile computing, but other factors also contribute to global growth, such as emergent economies, the replacement of obsolete systems and the development of cloud computing.

It also forecast global software spending to see growth of ten per cent this year, its strongest growth rate to date, while IT services are expected to grow by 9.4 per cent.

Growth in PC sales has been stronger than expected, representing 60 per cent of total hardware spending, with no signs of a slowdown. As a result, US forecasts have been marginally increased, while predictions for pacific Asia and Europe have increased dramatically.

“The market growth outside of the U.S. and the effects of the weak dollar are major factors in growth in U.S. dollar terms,” said Jim Tully, vice president of Gartner. “In addition to regional shifts, a strong shift to mobile PCs is occurring. The higher prices of these products result in increasing revenue per unit and a boost to the overall market.”